Fallout New Vegas: Old Man Courier (Side Story)
by Sir-Spoder
Summary: This is a collection of all the side stories for my other fic the Old Man Courier in Fallout New Vegas. Disclaimer: Fallout belongs to Bethesda/ Obsidian.
1. Chpt 28-5: The Mysterious Courier

**_*** This is a little side story that took place before the show they had at the Aces Theater. After Benny left the Strip. This is not part of the main story. Effectively making this CHAPTER 28.5***_**

* * *

 _"AND STAY OUT!"_

The Gomorrah guard sent Sol flying, driving his shoe straight up his ass, sending him tumbling down the set of stairs. All the while the old man was laughing like a crazed Fiend junkie as he fell down the stairs with two gigantic leather bags in his hands.

Boone, Arcade and Cass soon followed him as they were escorted outside by the casino guards.

"And don't you _dare_ come back, ya asshole!" The guard yelled.

"Ah HA HA HA HA! You can kick me out, but _you can't keep me out!"_ Sol started laughing so much that he began losing his own voice after a good long minute.

The guard grunted in frustration, not because he was annoyed at what Sol said, but because he knew that what he said was true. House's rule, baby! You were allowed to ban casino players who was winning too much at the tables but you couldn't ban them forever. But then again, Sol did practically break the Gomorrah's bank after his wins tonight. An astronomical amount of 9300 caps worth of chips in total. But it wasn't the actual reason why they got kicked out.

"Remind me again," said Boone, "why am I here wasting my time with you?"

"Well, I needed a heckler."

"Excuse me?"

"Ya know, to make sure the dealers don't pull anything out of their sleeves, or maybe I'm thinking of something else, not really sure."

"Ya know," Cass said as she walked down, "when I said that you should give the roulette tables a try, I didn't mean for you to go on and hoard all the Casino's chips to yourself! What on earth were you thinking?"

"What can I say?" Sol shrugged, "I guess I'm just a natural at gambling. And besides, you're the one who suggested that I try out all of these games in the first place."

"Well I wasn't the one who told you to start insulting the dealer's mother now, was I?" She cried angrily.

"Hey he started it," Sol said, "I saw him pull a card out from under the table, like hell I'd let that slide."

"Hey, what ever happened to your _heckler_ then huh?" Boone asked almost sarcastically.

"Eh, you were kinda useless anyway," Sol said.

"What did you say?"

"Since I figured you'd probably refuse anyway if I had ask," he explained. Boon gave him a look that told Sol he was going to _punch him in the face when they get back to the suite._ Sol simply laughed it off.

"Well we better get back now, a pretty prosperous night for my first time gambling if I do say so myself," Sol said as he opened up his sack of casino chips, thousands and thousands of them jingling inside, "Ah crap, I probably should go back tomorrow or something to exchange these things, can't buy shit with this."

* * *

 ** _9:51 PM_**

"Hey, the boss's not back yet?" Raul asked as he drank a bottle of sarsaparilla.

"No, not yet," Cass said, "he said he's out."

"Doing what?"

"Who knows," she shrugged, "screwing a whore, trying to get the other casinos bankrupt, who the hell knows?"

"You ever wonder what he does in his free time?" Veronica asked from across the room, flinging a dart at the board on the wall.

"No, why?" Arcade said.

"No reason in particular," Veronica said as she flung another dart at the wall, "it's just that the guy disappears every night before we go to sleep going to who knows where doing who knows what. Don't you find that strange?"

"No," Boone said, "I mean a guy who disappears _every_ night without telling us _anything_ isn't weird like – _at all_ … Oh, of course it's strange!" He snapped, "I don't think that that son of a bitch's ever told us a single thing about himself ever since we met him."

"You know now that you mention it," said Arcade, "he has been acting pretty strange as of late. As bombastic, reckless and idiotic he seems, he's actually quite intelligent. He keeps most things to himself, so I don't think we've even learned a fraction of his story yet."

"Hey, stupid idea here," Veronica raised her hand, "how 'bout… we follow the guy and see what he does every night?"

They all fell silent, staring at her. It made her uncomfortable.

"Jeez, guys, quit doing that, I said it was a stupid idea alright?"

"Actually," Arcade said, scratching his chin, "maybe it's not. I mean, if we're going to continue travelling with each other then I for one would like to know who we're working with."

"Come on guys," said Raul, "you guys are over-thinking this. I mean we can trust the boss… right?"

"Ha ha _ha_ ha _ha,"_ it was the fakest laugh anybody had ever heard, Boone sat up and grabbed his rifle, then muttered grimly to Raul, " _No!"_

* * *

"Okay, so let's go over what we know," Arcade whispered, "the guy always leave at 9 pm and always come back at 3 in the morning right?"

"Sounds about right," said Cass, "I heard him getting off the elevator roughly around 2 or 3 in the morning the other day, can't remember the exact time. Maybe he's gone off to get a few drinks?"

"Unlikely," Arcade said, "remember that this is a daily routine for him, and he's been doing this even before he came to Vegas. Or so I was told. I don't know, I wasn't here when you guys were travelling with him."

"It's true," Boone confirmed.

"But he couldn't have gone too far, definitely not anywhere far away from the Freeside's gate. I've made a list of possible locations of where he could've gone."

"You sure that's going to work?" Raul asked.

"Don't know," he replied a bit nervously, "let's just wait for a minute."

Veronica quickly came around the corner after she left the Mick and Ralph's general store. It was dark, the light posts were barely functional. It was like they were walking in shadows.

"Anything?" Arcade asked her.

"Well, there's definitely something alright," she said, "Ralph said that he saw a guy in a long coat and black cowboy hat came in the other day to buy some scrap metal and a wrench."

"Sounds like him alright," Arcade said.

"The bastard's not even trying to be subtle about it," Boone commented.

"Did he tell you where Sol was going?" Arcade asked.

"Well," she answered, "he said that Sol mentioned something about going outside of Freeside to fix something, said that it was a big machine so he couldn't bring it inside the city. That's about it, Ralph said he doesn't really know the details."

"That's strange."

"He could be lying to Ralph," said Arcade.

"So maybe he's gone somewhere around Crimson Caravan folks?" Said Raul.

"Unlikely, they have a lot of guards. And I don't think they'd appreciate a stranger going about in the middle of the night around their camp."

"Gun Runners?" Raul asked.

"Again, they have a lot of guards, so no," Arcade answered.

"Wait a minute guys," Veronica suddenly nudged Arcade, "isn't that him over there?"

They all stood up and peeked over the brick wall. A tall scrawny man was coming around the corner. He had a bright cigarette in his mouth and was wearing a blue duster. That was definitely him, alright.

They began following him as soon as he left the gate of Freeside. They tried to be as quiet as possible since they didn't want him to think that the thugs were following him or something. Sol was… somewhat calm. The way he walked, the way he dragged his heavy boots across the cracked roads – it was unsettling somehow.

Boone and Arcade carefully pushed back the heavy metal gate so that it wouldn't make any noise.

"Hurry, we might lose him," Veronica urged.

They watched from afar as Sol walked towards the pile of ruined buildings all around the Vegas clinic. There they saw him wandering behind a crumbling brick wall and disappeared behind the pile of old rubble.

"Where'd he go?" Veronica asked.

"There, behind that building," Boone whispered, "follow me."

The five of them crawled through the darkness to where they last saw the old man. Still trying to be as quiet as possible. But that silence was soon broken when they gasped in shock as they turned around the corner.

"Is this…" Cass said, "a bunker?"

It was a sort wooden cellar door that was extremely well hidden behind the pile of crumbling bricks and rubble that was lying on top. A regular person would have never been able to find out about this place unless they followed the guy to this spot. The encompassing darkness of the cold Mojave night helped, too.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Veronica said, "Let's go in."

But when Boone tried to pull the handle on the door, it didn't seem to budge. Not even a bit. It was like as if it was barricaded from within.

"Now what?"

"Don't worry guys," Cass said, "I know a neat little trick you can use whenever there's an intricate locked door like this."

She then yanked out her double barrel shotgun and unloaded it right on top of the cellar door, blasting all the splinter and small wooden fragments all over the place, bursting it into a storm of wooden dust.

"For the love of Christ," Arcade cried, "what do you think you're doing? Do you _want_ him to know we're here?"

"Look we were going to find out about this eventually," Cass said while reloading her shotgun, "I say we just march straight down there and confront him about it."

Arcade didn't want to argue since he knew that what was done was done, it couldn't be helped. He opened up the cracked piece of wood that used to be a cellar door and threw it onto the ground. It was dark, really dark down there. All the darkness of the cold desert's evil moon was nothing compared to this.

"So, shall we?" Cass didn't even wait for them to answer. She jumped straight down the set of stairs and into the gloomy shadows.

"Hey Cass, wait up," Veronica called after.

"Guys, be careful now… guys? Don't just jump… guys… ugh," Arcade grunted, "Am I the only rational one around here?"

"Don't worry, you'll get use to it," Boone patted him on the back and soon followed them.

But their high spirits quickly died off when they finally got down to the bottom of the stairs and was met with a barrage of hellish red and green lights firing at them like they were fireballs from hell itself. It nearly burnt their skins off. Cass was quick to react when she emptied her shotgun and fired into the distance. The red lights were still firing at them at a rapid rate. Cass quickly ducked around the corner to reload and then fired the shotgun one more time. This time the light had died down a little, but the green lights were still spurting towards them in furious manner.

Cass was in utter shock when she saw a massive green bolt of light dashing from behind, when she turned around she saw smoke hissing from the tip of a plasma defender held by the doctor Arcade Gannon himself. His accuracy was dead on. She never took him for the type that would be proficient with guns and weapons, but Arcade was a natural.

" _Who's there?!"_

They suddenly heard a voice in the back a few seconds after the red and green lights died off.

" _I swear to god if it's one of you Fiend junkie again I'm going to paint this wall with the bits from your brain… now COME OUT you stupid fucking son of a…_ um… guys?" Sol came out of the shadows staring in disbelief, he rubbed his eyes checking to see if whether he was hallucinating from the late night's darkness, but he wasn't, "what the hell are you guys doing here?"

"We could be asking you the same thing," Boone said as he helped Cass up her feet.

Sol flicked the light switch on the side of the wall only to find a pile of scrap metal mess spattered all around the room like some sort of a bloody mess of guts.

"What the fuck, oh come you guys, you messed up my turrets, I spent all night yesterday working on these."

"Turrets?" Veronica asked, "as in... security turrets or something?"

"Oh yeah, the idea is that I hook it up to a tripod of some sort and then connect the wiring so that I can communicate and control it using my Pip-Boy. It's really efficient since there are no bullet shells that fall out of the weapon and I don't have to reload, I can just slap a gigantic battery onto it and let it work its magic. Bada bing, bada boom, enemies melt to their bones, it's that simple."

"Hmm, this requires a high level of engineering that I don't believe is very common in the wasteland," Arcade said, starting to take some interest.

"Yeah, I have some schematics in the back I can show you… heyyy, wait the minute, you guys still haven't told me what the hell y'all doing here!"

"See guys, didn't I tell ya we can trust our boss?" Raul said, "As his partners in crime, we should always let him go off in the middle of the night into a dark mysterious cellar doing who knows what because… well, because he's just that trustworthy and we have nothing to worry about, right boss?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot for your input Raul, really appreciate it."

"You're welcome."

"But on a more serious note," Arcade said as he wiped his glasses with his sleeves, "you gotta tell us, why are you down here of all places? You've been gone an awful lot. At least tell us what you've been up to."

Sol took a deep breath and sighed as he looked around the room:

"Fine, I guess I'll tell you. Follow me, it's all back here."

They all followed him to the back room where he pulled a string on the light bulb above them. It was sort of dim and hard to see at first but their eyes slowly adjusted. It was a small room, it couldn't have been bigger than a bedroom or a living room.

And yet words could not have described what they saw. It was like a small vault full of the most expensive and most powerful firearms they had ever seen in their entire whole life. .44 revolvers, .357 revolvers, battle rifles, brush guns, hunting rifles, repeaters, marksman carbine, trail carbines, anti-materiel rifles you name it. It was all there, piles upon piles of these sticks sitting next to dozens of ammunition boxes as if he was stacking a bunch of wooden logs and bricks. By the corner you could catch a glimpse of his workbench with a bunch of wrenches, nails, duct tapes and screwdrivers also pilling like a mountain. Heck, there was also a bunch of laser and plasma rifles lying around buried under a bunch of microfusion cells and electrical wiring.

"What… the hell?" They all gasped as they walked in.

"Welcome to my workshop… I guess."

"What… what is all of… this?" Arcade asked.

"It's my work," Sol explained, "I make rifles, guns, ammunition. I also try to craft the energy guns to make the turrets. And before you ask, no I do not make automatic weapons, because machine guns are for pussies who can't aim. Good rule of thumb right there."

"But… but… why?"

"How do you think I make my caps? Money doesn't grow on trees, ya know. Also this is sorta a hobby of mine. I don't know, I just got a thing for machinery, screws and cogs all that jazz."

"Wait, so you just… build weapons and sell them?" Veronica asked, Sol then nodded, "But… who do you sell it to?"

"Do you sell them to the NCR?" Boone asked, then squinted his eyes as he started getting suspicious, "… or do you trade with the Legion?"

"NO! God no!" He laughed, "Do you think I'm an idiot? No, no, no, I just go around, and sell it to random caravan groups, sometimes I sell them to the Gun Runners."

"One thing I don't get, boss," Raul said, "do you just carry a bunch of guns and walk all around the wasteland and drop it off to different places? Because that would be quite a handful if I may say so myself. And not to mention you'd have to come back here to restock your supply as you head out to make another sale."

"Well here's the thing," Sol explained, "I've also got a couple more little bunkers and cellars like this one all across the wasteland. I've been doing this for a long time ya know, back in the day I only had one of these bunkers. But of course, like you said, travelling was an issue so I reckoned that I ought to build several of these sooner or later. I also drop them around in hidden stash boxes so caravan groups or scavengers can easily find them. I let the Legion take some of it from time to time, too."

"What? Why?" Boone demanded.

"Why not? Like I said, I need to make some caps from time to time, alright? I wouldn't even be in business if the NCR just goes ahead and lord all over the Legion and overwhelm them. It'd be too easy for them if they had all the advantages, no competition, means NCR has no demand for guns, and no demand for guns, no caps for me. And besides, it wouldn't be fun if I just let the NCR completely destroys the Legion now would it?"

"What the hell does that mean?" said Arcade, "So this is just purely a hobby for you?"

"Essentially."

"According to my analysis," Arcade said, "this is… easily the most psychotic thing I've ever seen since a guy decided to dress in football dresses and started enslaving people."

"Hey, these stuff ain't cheap ya know. And besides, what exactly is ' _psychotic'_ about trying to make a living?"

"Well, you could've used all this vast knowledge on weaponry and machinery to help us whenever we encounter a gigantic wild super mutant that's trying to eat us alive, or when a giant angry Deathclaw's running towards us like a Cazador on jet," said Veronica, "but instead you want to sell them all away? For a bunch of lousy caps?"

"You start taking caps for granted and one day you'll regret it," he answered, "and besides, last I checked, I only have two arms, I can't use ten guns at the same time now can I?"

They couldn't believe it. They never knew and some of them still refused to believe it. They all came out here tonight to see if he was a trustworthy man or not, they expected him to be somewhat decent. But all of this had the opposite effect. Because they knew that Solmund had a talent that not many other people had. To keep secrets, keep other people in the dark. That was what made him so unpredictable… so dangerous.


	2. Chpt 30-5: Christmas Shenanigans

***** _This is a side story that takes place after they left the Strip, on their way to the signal of the Madre. Effectively making this CHAPTER 30.5. This is not part of the main story, so you can skip if you want.***_**

* * *

Boone was really pissed about the old Ranger. Sol wouldn't tell them anything on why the hell they were travelling down South. He said that he wasn't going to Caesar's Fort and yet they were heading down towards that very direction. Sometimes Boone had trouble figuring out what was going on inside that thick head of his.

But Sol managed to distract everybody enough with small talks and Cass's booze to get them to forget about even asking where they were going. They were wandering around the outskirt of the city at this point. There was a lot of abandoned old houses around this place. There was also a large NCR farm that took up most of the space around here, the rest were just empty broken down houses or houses with boarded up doors and windows.

"Okay, question…" the old ranger said while walking, "Where do you think is Mr. New Vegas?"

"Ooh, that's… actually a pretty good question actually," Veronica said.

"I know right?" Sol said, "I mean we hear the guy on the radio like _all the time_ and yet nobody knows where he is. Like some kind of ghost or something. Don't you find that strange at all?"

"My theory," said Arcade, "is that he's just an artificial intelligence programmed some time before the war. I believe that there are clear implications of this if you pay close attention to the radio."

"Yeah, that would explain the repeated messages," Sol said, "but that still begs the question: where is this so called artificial intelligence then? I mean somebody must have had set it up somewhere, it can't just show up out of nowhere," he then turned to the old ghoul, "Raul? Did you notice anything odd while you were on Black Mountain?"

"Gee boss, I don't know," Raul said, "I mean it's not like I had other issues I needed to take care of while I was on that mountain, issues like say trying to stay alive while around those psychotic murderous Nightkins, but no, I understand, finding out about some invisible radio host is way more important than staying alive. That's definitely an idea I can get behind."

"Alright, you've made your point," Sol groaned.

"There wasn't much up there to be honest," the old ghoul finally said, "just a bunch of crazy mutants hijacking other radio stations with Tabitha's own psychotic radio show. Don't think Mr. New Vegas would be too please to hear that, if he's even a real person at all."

"You have a point," Arcade commented, "in my opinion, I think…"

"Wait the minute…" Sol interrupted him, "this is a strange house, I don't think I've seen it before."

They suddenly stopped before the structure. It wasn't like the other houses, mainly because it wasn't boarded up like all the others. Although the rooms inside were dark enough that they still couldn't see through while standing outside.

"See anything?" Veronica asked the guys just as she was peeking in through the windows. Sol wondered from time to time whether Veronica realized how redundant most of her questions usually were.

"Alright stand back, I'm going in," Cass said as she gave the door a forceful frontal kick, shattering the door knob and the hinges. It fell down like a tree, scattering dust and cobwebs everywhere with the strong light penetrating through to the rotten wooden planks on the floor. Sol coughed with heavy lungs as he inhaled the ancient dust flying up from the floor.

"Hold on," Sol said while still coughing, "let me just get the Pip-boy light."

But they were not prepared for what was inside.

Strange and bizarre ornaments with brilliant colors were lying around all over the floors and inside were countless hefty cardboard boxes stacked up against each other like tall buildings made out of old rotten wood. There were bright shiny red balls lying around on the tables and on the floor, bright blue crystal orbs and polished green balls all scattered around the entire room in a disorganized mess. There was also a tree of some sort sitting in the back, although Sol had never seen a tree with leaves as bright and green as these before in his life. A strange juxtaposition to the decaying wasteland outside the house. It was strange and yet oddly beautiful. None of them knew what to make of this scene.

"What on earth is this place?" Veronica said, speechless as she sauntered in, "I've never ever seen anything so… so… so…"

"Beautiful," Sol said, "… what do y'all reckon is all of this? Some sort of… over-designed junk? I'd say somebody's got an awful lot of time on their hands."

"One thing's for sure though," Arcade commented, "whoever was responsible for this, it doesn't look like that person's around anymore. This place is a mess, I wouldn't even be surprised if this was abandoned for over a decade or more."

"Huh, funny," Sol said, "I thought the NCR had already salvaged this whole area."

"I don't think the NCR had salvaged much of anything," Boone said from behind.

"Agreed," Cass told them, "you take one look at the farm over there and you'll see that's where their priorities is, the houses around here's probably still abandoned, left for scavengers to pick apart."

"So how come this place's still intact?" Veronica asked, "I mean, it's not like the door was boarded up or anything. Some wandering scavenger could've had easily broken down the door."

"They probably thought that the junk here wasn't worth much," Sol told her, "You try trading using any of these things and people'd probably think you're conning them."

"True."

Sol began wandering around the piles of ornaments on the floor, he was still unsure of what these things were and what purpose they served. He tried looking for some clues over the table, but it was also packed with cardboard boxes and these shiny ornaments.

"Hey, take a look at this," Veronica pulled out something that resembled a furry string with bright white color, it was like as if the string was coated in diamond. She toyed with string, spinning around with it while humming, wrapping it around her neck like a neck scarf or something.

"How do I look?" She asked while striking a pose. It was campy as hell.

"Like a short 90 year old woman with a scraggly white beard who just spent 30 days straight in the scorching sun," Raul calmly said.

"Bah, don't listen to him," Cass dismissed him, "he hasn't got a slightest clue when it comes to fashion senses."

"Right, because your _fashion sense_ is _so_ apparent with your filthy duster filled with nothing but dirt and sand, absolutely beautiful if I do say so myself," Raul responded sarcastically.

"Hey, hey, I look good alright?" Cass said, "Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY wants a piece of this," gesturing to all of her.

"Correction," Raul said, "every filthy raider on the street who hasn't been touched by a woman in years wants a piece of you, he-he."

"Hardy-har-har, very funny."

Sol and Arcade continued rummaging through the cardboard boxes until Sol stopped at a small ragged little notebook that was lodged between two boxes. He carefully pulled it out of the small dusty space, a bunch of small bugs scattered down the floor just as he took the book out from the crack.

There was no title on the front, just a brown leather cover. Sol assumed that it was a journal of some sort. But all the dust and crap sticking over the thing almost made him reconsider even reading the damn thing. But he opened it anyway, careful not to make the dust fly all over his face.

The old ranger cleared his throat before reading aloud:

 _Chapter One_

 _December 19th, 2272?_

 _I don't know what I'm doing anymore, it's been five days now and the goddamn raider was still outside the house. He's lurking out there in the dark I'm sure. He's probably thinking that there's some valuable loot in here. I wanted to go out and tell him a couple of times, but I'm afraid that he won't believe me and kill me anyway. I mean, I don't really care if he kills me, it's Sarah that I'm worried about. She's still just a little girl, I can't just leave her here to that brute. Poor thing. She's frightened to death by that son of a bitch outside._

 _She wanted to go out and play with her friend Jackie but I told her that it's dangerous outside. It got her real upset. She couldn't even bear to look me in the eyes during dinner. I'm sorry honey, it's just that I know everything's been difficult lately, but I promise you it'll be over soon. I've got an old friend over the NCR. They'll sort this out soon I promise. And besides, I'm pretty sure that this will be sorted out just before Christmas. I've got all these gears lying around, people are going to start buying all these junk by then._

"Christmas?" Sol asked, "The hell is a Christmas?"

Sol looked around the room to find everybody shaking their heads, shrugging their shoulders. But then one of them spoke from the crowd, nobody expected it.

"Heh, I remember Christmas, I guess it's been a long time since we had those," Raul told them in a low voice, almost as if reminiscing of his past, "my sister used to love 'em, since our grandma always gave her the nicest gifts."

"I didn't know you had a sister," Sol said.

"I had a lot of siblings actually," Raul told him.

"So where are they now? Are they also ghouls?" Veronica asked. But Raul's expression suddenly changed, but only slightly. There was a sudden dullness that sparked in his eyes, as if remembering something awful. He told them:

"Not everybody is unfortunate enough to become ghouls, Veronica…"

"So… what exactly is Christmas?" Sol asked him.

"Huh? Oh, right, Christmas… it's an Old World holiday, it's a day when everybody would give each other these really nice gifts wrapped in these brightly colored boxes. I tell ya, the children love 'em. They would play around, exchange gifts, and play in the snow, me and my sisters had a blast back in our old ranch…"

"Snow?" Veronica asked, "As in those tiny white specks we see in snowglobes?"

"Yup, damn straight," Raul confirmed, "it was actually quite pleasant to be honest. People back then would set up one of those triangle looking trees over in the corner there and then put a bunch of decorations on them. These balls lying on the ground are a few of those decorations, it was like some sort of crystal orbs with all the colors of the rainbow placed together in one place. There were also strings of lights and small figurines, it was absolutely breathtaking, you have to be there to understand. The trees… there was just a certain spark of magic to it. The warm luminescent light it gave off onto the crowded white street, the smell of the wood and the fresh sap, and the brilliant light from the star pieces placed on the top of these majestic trees, it was just a spectacular sight to behold. All in all it was just a day where everybody would just relax and have some fun under the beautiful night sky of the silent warm white winter."

"Sounds awfully poetic doesn't it?" Cass told him.

"Yeah, it's what my grandma used to tell me," Raul said, "I guess… it's been so long that not many people actually remember what it felt like."

"I still don't get it, though," Arcade suddenly said, "if this so called Christmas was anything like what you described then all these things here in this room should be considered an Old World treasure. There's no way that a regular scavenger would just ignore this, the argument that they would think that all of these wouldn't worth much is just simply asinine. A regular scavenger would jump seeing a small shiny piece of scrap metal, a room full of brightly colored ornaments like these should've been a gold mine."

"Maybe it's explained in the journal."

"Right."

Sol nodded and continued the next page:

 _Chapter Two_

 _December 20th, 2272?_

 _The raider was still outside. I can't let Sarah out yet. I tried contacting the NCR again this morning but the radio just kept giving me static noises. I honestly don't know when they'll be coming. I'm not even sure if they got my message in the first place, for all we know we could be stuck here alone with that bastard. Maybe I'm overreacting, I should just calm down. For her sake. But I don't know if we can last much longer, supplies are getting pretty low. We're down to two sacks of potatoes, should be enough to last us a week or two, I don't really know, I'm really bad at math. Maybe I should start boarding up the house, the raider's bound to leave eventually._

 _What am I thinking? He's a fucking raider, if we don't do something soon the bastard's just going to kick down the door. I don't know what the hell that son of a bitch is waiting for. I mean he's just standing out there. At least I think he's there. What am I talking about? Of course he's there! I mean why would we be here in the first place if he's not there?_

 _Chapter Three_

 _December 20th, 2172?_

 _I tried the radio again, still nothing but static. I just don't know what the hell is wrong with this piece of crap. It was fine just a couple of days ago. If I didn't know any better I'd say that somebody's out to sabotage us._

 _Then again, maybe it WAS the raider. He's playing mind games with us I just know it. Just trying to get into our heads. Well not on my watch! I'll show him._

 _Sarah'd been awfully quiet lately. She was probably still upset that she still couldn't go outside. Well, don't you worry about a thing honey, I'll take care of this, I promise. In fact, I think I'm going to start setting up the tree after this. Oh, boy she's going to be in for a surprise. I already got her present somewhere in one of these boxes, I don't remember where, though. Doesn't really matter now, I'll just find it later. Maybe if I finish the tree early I can still wrap it in a nice little bow._

 _Oh and another thing, I heard that Jackie's mom had a bunch of old records of songs, with some Christmas songs in the mix. I was thinking that we could invite her over for a little get together. It might be fun._

 _Chapter Four_

 _December 22nd, 1271_

 _I just don't know what to do about the radio. Sarah's been real upset since the radio's down. There was this one station that she wanted to tune into. I told her that the station's not available in Nevada anymore. But she wouldn't believe me. I kept trying to find that station every now and then, for her sake._

 _But she was still pretty sad about that, so I told her 'you know what? How 'bout we go and make our own station?' Just think, a radio show where we can be our own host and we can play whatever music we want, we could even take requests. We'll broadcast it out to the whole wasteland, I told her. It'll be a blast._

 _I already had a couple of holodisks set up and ready to go. As soon as the radio's back on we can give it a go. Don't worry honey, when all of this is over I promise you that we'll host the best radio show that anyone's ever seen. People will be tuning to listen to it daily, daily I tell you! It's going to be amazing._

"Um… the chapter ends here," Sol said.

"Wait what? That's it?" Veronica cried, "There's got to be more than that."

"Yeah, sure, but the rest of the pages are blank, there's nothing he…" something suddenly fell out of the pages as Sol was shaking it up and down, it crashed straight onto the wooden floor. It was a metal keycard of some sort.

"What's that?" Raul asked.

Sol picked it up and started inspecting it.

"It's a terminal key card," Sol told them, "if my hunch is right, then there's got to be a terminal of some sort around here."

"Why do you say that?" Cass asked.

"Well," he explained, "if the author of this journal is like anything I imagine then I would assume that he's a very paranoid man. He's not going to keep a journal in just one place. The terminal's got to be around here som…"

"Found it! It's over here!" Boone cried out from the corner. The sniper shoved all the cardboard boxes to the side and dragged the large and hefty terminal out of the corner, carefully placing it onto the table.

Sol looked for the on button down the bottom right corner. It was even dustier than the book. But at least the power was still functional. He quickly located the key slot and inserted the card inside, it fitted like a glove.

"Here we go," Sol said, "there's a couple more files here. It's definitely from the journal."

 _Chapter Five_

 _December 23rd, 2072?_

 _The radio was still not working. So I smashed the damn thing. I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Who knows, the NCR's probably already heard our messages…_

 _Chapter Six_

 _December 24th, 2222222_

 _I just don't know anymore. I don't know what to do. I tried contacting the NCR again but the radio wouldn't work. I swear the raider is still out there. I'm not making this up! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm NOT!_

 _I am so sorry honey, I know that I promised that we would play in the snow again. But I don't know. I just wanted you to be happy. I promise that I'll make it up to you next year. Tell you what, I'll even bring in a new little brother for you to play with, we'll be just like a family, a family just like how I wanted. So don't you worry about a thing, dear. Next year for sure._

 _P.S, I left your present under the wooden board around the corner so that it's right next to where you usually sleep. I had to hide it in case the raider ever got into the house._

"The wooden board by the corner?" Raul asked confusedly.

"Um, hold on," Boone said as he scanned around the area, "over there, just under the tree."

Cass immediately jumped over the boxes and pushed away the trees and the boxes of decorations. She knelt down and forcefully punched onto the hard wooden planks over and over again until a loud snap was heard.

"There's definitely something here," She called, she then used her fingers to pry open the planks and threw it to the side. But then she suddenly jumped and nearly shouted at the sight of what was under the boards.

"What's wrong?" Arcade asked, "What is it?"

"Jesus Christ, what the fuck!" Cass cried.

Under the wooden boards was a small charred skeleton – the size of a little kid. And lying beside the little skeleton was a small metal box that was covered in rust and dust. Nobody knew what to make of this. The skeleton gave off a strange ambiance that sent chills down their spine.

"Is that… the kid?" Veronica asked.

Arcade approached the skeleton and started examining it. He was careful not damage these old bone pieces.

"It's been here for at least a decade now," Arcade said, "so yeah, I'm going to have to say yes. It's her."

"But wait, if she's here then… where's the father?" Sol asked.

"Try the boxes," Boone said, "it's piling up like mountains in here, there's probably something behind it."

They all rummaged through the piles of cardboard boxes, tearing down one by and one and chucking it to the side. There were a lot more of those boxes than they originally thought.

"Here it is!" Sol called out, "Oh my god…"

There were even more charred skeletons here in the back, about four of five of them. Black and rotten to the core. It had been here for over a decade now, that was for sure. It was hard to tell which bone belonged to which limb. It was even harder trying to make out the face because the skulls were messed up pretty badly.

"That's her dad right?" Veronica said, "Well that can't be right."

"Wait, what's this?"

Sol crouched down to one of the skeletons, there was something peculiar that sparked his interest. A silver pendant with a carving of a name on it – Jackie.

"What the hell?" He checked all the other skeletons, they all had the same silver pendant, each with a different carving – _NCR, Jackie's mom, Billy,_ and lastly _Raider._ This doesn't make any sense, he thought.

"Check the other skeleton!" Sol shouted, "See if there's a necklace like these."

"Yeah, there is," Boone said.

"What does it say?"

Boone muttered reluctantly:

"… Sarah…"

They all stood there speechless. Frozen in shock and with chills crawling down their spines. But something still didn't add up. Sol rushed his way towards the terminal and scrolled through the files. Something just didn't feel right.

"Ah ha, here it is," Sol cried, "there's one more file," he then read it aloud:

 _Chapter Seven_

 _December 25th, 319233?_

 _I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. All I ever wanted was for us to be a family. I know I promised you many things (it looks like your little brother will have to wait, his name is Billy) but most important of all I know that I promised you a perfect Christmas. We were going to set up the trees, put up the decorations. I even prepared a present for you. It's all the songs I promised we would have on our radio show, I really thought that you'd love them._

 _I know that I won't be around forever but at the very least I could leave behind something amazing, something beautiful. He'll look after you even when I'm not here. I called him Mr. New Vegas. I know it's not that original but it reminded me of an old singer I used to hear on the radio, you'll love him. I already programmed him to broadcast signals to every radio stations in the entire region, it wasn't easy but it was worth it. So as long as any of the radio stations in the Mojave keeps on broadcasting signals, even if only one of the stations is activated, Mr. New Vegas will be there._

 _There's a holodisk in the box, it's all the songs that Jackie's mom gave me, you just hook it up to the radio and Mr. New Vegas will broadcast it for you. All I ever wanted was to bring the joy of Christmas to everyone in the world, everybody in the Mojave. Mr. New Vegas can do that, he can do that! He can bring the joy of the snow and the season of giving to this harsh cruel world, a harsh unforgiving world where we can take comfort in knowing that there will always be a time, a time in a cold beautiful season where we can spend some quality time with our family, our friends. Sarah, please forgive me for I can't be there for you, but I'm certain that Mr. New Vegas will be there for you._

 _Merry Christmas honey, and happy New Year._

 _Love, Dad_

They all stood there in silent. None of them knew what to do, what to say. They all thought about it, a morbid little story. What was this strange feeling that they felt? It wasn't like anything Raul described. They didn't know how to describe it. The best way they could explain it was to say that it was a strange sadness of a tragedy that they would never want to resurface from memory.

And yet…

"I think… I understand…" Arcade said, "why nobody ever bothered to show up to loot this place. Nobody wanted this tragic story to be heard. They thought that it'd be best for it to be left in the past where it belongs."

Everybody seemed to agree on that idea. But the worst part about it was that they all seemed to agree on following through with the notion as well, leaving this tragedy behind to history, keeping this secret hidden and buried forever. It was quite depressing actually, but so easy to do.

… But…

"No!" Sol suddenly said, shocking everybody, "We can't do this!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… we can't just… do it like everybody else… we can't leave this behind in the past anymore. We can't ignore it."

"Why?"

"Because it's Christmas…" he told them, "I mean… if something so wonderful and beautiful is to be left forgotten… then what is there left to live for? Especially in this horrible, horrible wasteland. Raul?" He turned to the old ghoul, "Don't you remember what it was like before the war? When Christmas was still around, don't you remember the magic of the holiday? Back when you were children and you played around in the snow with each other? The days full of cheers and laughter?"

Raul slowly nodded in sadness:

"… Yes…"

"Let's be real here," Sol said, "does it really matter that a tragedy had happened within this very house? We are standing in the middle of an Old World treasure for god's sake. It doesn't matter what happened within this house, this man died trying to spread his love for his daughter to the whole wasteland, to the whole world. And that means something."

A sudden spark appeared in their eyes, Sol continued:

"If we don't do something about this then nobody else will, they will just keep on going without looking back to the Old World treasures. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to have that! C'mon guys, it's the season of giving, we should be happy, we should rejoice, it's CHRISTMAS FOR GOD'S SAKE."

"Yeah, yeah, that's right, it's Christmas guys!" Veronica joined in, agreeing and smiling brightly, "Now we're not going sit around here doing nothing while Christmas passes by now are we?"

"No!" Sol yelled, "C'mon guys!"

"Okay, boss," Raul said, smiling warmly at last, "I suppose… my Rafaela would've wanted this."

"You're damn right she would!" Sol shouted enthusiastically, which managed a chuckle out of the old ghoul.

"Well, as long as there's lots and lots of booze, I'm game," Cass said, also smiling under her shades. "What? It's Christmas right? I may not know much about this Old World holiday, but I don't think it matters that much, and honestly I don't care. Let's have some fun now!"

"So what are we waiting for?"

"Yeah, let's get this show on the road, baby."

"Ring-a-ding-ding, baby!"

"I'll get the decorations!"

"I'll go set up the trees, we should clear the room of all the boxes first."

"Yeah, and clean up the damn place, it's filthy in here."

"Come on, ED-E, Rex, come here boy, now don't go causing too much trouble, alright?"

"Boone, don't just stand around there, come on! Cheer up will ya. It's Christmas."

"Alright, while you guys are doing that, I'll be at the terminal and the radio here, I'll try to hook up the holodisks, for the songs see, I'm sure we can make something out of these old junk."

"I already got ya covered, Arcade my man. I'll just upload it onto my Pip-Boy, I'll grab onto the signals of the New Vegas radio station and broadcast the signals. It shouldn't be too hard, especially with RobCo technologies."

" _Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep!"_

 _"_ Oh, ED-E, you're so silly!"

"Ha ha ha!"

* * *

 _Hey Arcade, you noticed it too right?_

 _Yes, Sol, I'm a doctor after all. Most of the skeletons were a lot older except for one of them. The only one without a necklace. That one must've been the father._

 _Don't you find that strange?_

 _Are you implying that the father was the killer of all these people?_

 _Perhaps, it's evident through his psychotic journal entries. He wanted a family, he wanted to be the role of the father. He wanted it to be his family, and his alone._

 _Are there any evidence to the contrary?_

 _Yeah, the way he used language, it's evident that he truly loved his daughter. So maybe he wasn't really a killer. Maybe she just died before he had the chance to spend time with her in this Christmas together._

 _Yeah, but there's the detail about the raider. He never mentioned him attacking them at all. He never even mentioned anybody other than himself seeing this raider._

 _Yes, that proved to be supporting the theory that it was all make-believe. He wanted to keep his family to himself I suppose. There's also the detail about the smashed radio._

 _A lot of conflicting information here._

 _Interpretations, dear Arcade, history's all about interpretation._

 _I disagree. History is the facts, facts cannot be altered._

 _What about the facts looked through the eyes of a mad man? Facts looked through the eyes of all the countless greedy scavengers that came and go throughout the years? How is it that we are the first to see things differently?_

 _I guess some things are best left in History._

 _Yeah, I suppose._

 _And hey, what you did back there. Trying to bring back Christmas, it was… nice._

 _Yeah, thanks… it… reminded me of home… I understood what he meant… even though the journals implied some horrid things. It didn't really matter, he truly loved his family. He truly loved Christmas._

 _Hard to let go of Old World memories I suppose._

 _Yeah, I guess… now come on, let's not stand around here dilly-dallying, we still have to put on the decorations._

 _Right behind ya._

* * *

 _"You're listening to Radio New Vegas, your little jukebox in the Mojave Wasteland. I'm Mr. New Vegas, and I'm here letting you know I've got a new and exciting Christmas compilation coming out soon. I'm feeling something magic in the air tonight and I'm not just talking about the gamma radiation. We are getting into the spirit of the season folks, so grab your winter coats and lace on your winter boots because it's going to be very cold real soon. It's beautiful, I tell ya, the icy crystal white snow descending from the heavens like a beautiful angel. But not… as beautiful as you folks. So stay tuned, for this next song is all about the wonders of Christmas, the wonders of the Mojave, the wonders of Nuclear Winter Wonderland."_


End file.
